The Launch at 20Fathoms begins

Mark Urban, The Record-Eagle, Traverse City, Mich.
·4 min read

May 3—TRAVERSE CITY — Since its launch in the summer of 2018, 20Fathoms has served as a physical site for entrepreneurs and technology startups.

Traverse City's coworking space and technology hub is also the site for expanded entrepreneurial services. The Launch at 20Fathoms was designed with the purpose of removing barriers to help regional businesses grow.

"Through The Launch at 20Fathoms, we are expanding our startup incubation services and working hard to help more aspiring entrepreneurs in our region," 20Fathoms Executive Director Eric Roberts said in a release.

The Launch at 20Fathoms started rolling out information at the end of March and fully launched last month, according to Director of Marketing Keri Amlotte, the project lead for The Launch.

"Once you've met one entrepreneur, you've met just one entrepreneur," Amlotte said. "The need of every entrepreneur and every small business are different. So we've made a menu of resources and programming that you can choose as you need them and when you need them to build your business."

Traverse City's Startup + Tech Hub is one of the new resources available through The Launch at 20Fathoms. It's an online community for the region's entrepreneurs, tech professionals and partners.

The web-based platform includes an event calendar, directory of people and startups, discussion board, news, programming and professional service providers. The Startup + Tech Hub is available at connect.20Fathoms.org.

"The Startup + Tech Hub is like one-stop shopping for all of the people and activities connected to Traverse City's entrepreneurship and tech community," Roberts said in the release. "Our partners like Traverse Connect, TCNewTech, Northern Michigan Startup Week, Northwestern Michigan College are posting their resources to this website, too. So you only need to go to this one place to see everything happening in the community, as opposed to going to a bunch of different websites and still potentially missing something."

There are several other resources available at The Launch at 20Fathoms, including guides for:

* Access to capital, which includes "the primary funding options for each business phase, as well as some of the pros and cons worth considering," according to a release.

* Networking for business owners interested in meeting investors, mentors, professional services providers, business owners and peers.

* Mentorship so new business owners and entrepreneurs can build successful companies and avoid some common mistakes. This guide has information on three high-quality mentor networks.

* Education. NMC and 20Fathoms partnered to offer a Business Essentials course for aspiring entrepreneurs. The Education Guide has information on this course, 20Fathoms lunch-and-learn sessions and other avenues provided by other community organizations.

* Pitch Guide featuring TCNewTech, which lists other regularly occurring pitch opportunities around the state. TCNewTech and 20Fathoms are also partnering to host pitch coaching sessions for startup presenters.

No one needs to be a member of 20Fathoms to access the information in The Launch. Amlotte said the Business Essentials course has a cost attached, but also noted scholarships are available.

"It's open and available to the public," Amlotte said of 20Fathoms.org/launch. "Most resources are free."

Jodie Schanhals, president of MeetingMaker, said 20Fathoms was a valuable resource to her Traverse City-based startup.

"I believe that 20Fathoms is the best thing that my business could ever have," Schanhals said in a release. "It's building and sparking at a time that is so essential to me."

Summit in TC

The 2023 Rural Innovation Network Summit was held in Traverse City starting Monday and concludes Wednesday. Organized by the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI), the event was hosted by 20Fathoms. The Rural Innovation Network is "a nationwide community of change agents and local leaders working to advance the economic future of small-town America" and brought representatives from nearly 30 communities to the third annual summit at Delamar Traverse City.

"Traverse City is an excellent example of a rural community that is successfully leveraging innovation and technology to drive economic growth and development," Brēyana Ray, director of the Rural Innovation Network at CORI, said in a release. "The region has a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem and is home to many innovative businesses and organizations."

"By hosting the Rural Innovation Network Summit, we're able to showcase Traverse City's growing tech entrepreneurship community, while also learning best practices from other rural innovation leaders that we can apply locally to support the success of entrepreneurs and tech professionals," Roberts said in the release.

More information on CORI is available at ruralinnovation.us.